Talk:Unofficial decorations of the United States military

Should a link to Unofficial combat badges of the United States Army appear on this page along with the 4 types of unofficial army combat badges? I wasn't sure if a badge falls under the title of "decoration" (it seems to).

Why is the Chaplain Medal considered an unofficial decoration? It was authorized by Congress and given the same weight as the Medal of Honor. Maybe what the author of the article meant to say is that the Chaplain Medal is obsolete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 214.13.196.186 (talk) 06:32, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

I do think they mean "obsolete" - Atfyfe (talk) 20:27, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

Problems

To say that a particular medal never appeared on a precedence chart should be backed up with a solid reference, which is proably not easy to do. Secondly, it seems to me that "Unofficial" should denote no authorizing authority. The Unofficial badges of the United States military page states they are badges or emblems which do not appear in United States military regulations. However, in this article, it states the decorations "were authorized under military regulations, but never appeared on official precedence charts." To say that a decoration is authorized but unofficial seems to me to be a contradiction in terms.

It makes no sense to call the Chaplain's Medal "unofficial" when it was created by Congress, regardless of whether it is authorized for wear.

This 1967 code of federal regulations shows that the 1st and 2nd Byrd expeditions, the U.S. Antarctic Expedtion Medal, and the NC-4 Medal were in the table of precedence. http://books.google.com/books?id=z9A6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA551&lpg=PA551&dq=byrd+expedition+medal+precedence&source=bl&ots=TdCDm-ekEV&sig=dif6ugi0TlHEnrwLve8BpVYEYH0&hl=en#v=onepage&q=byrd%20expedition%20medal%20precedence&f=false

Even as recent as 1998, the Antarctic Expedition Medals were in the table of precedence:

http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/unif-navy.pdf see article 5308

This clearly shows the caution one must take in stating that a medal never appeared on a precedence chart.

I don't understand the point being made about the National Guard cold war medal. Just because it can be purchased, that makes it an "unoffical" U.S. military decoration? Better to leave this designation out, and just call it what it is, and wait until it or something similiar is approved for the regular U.S. Military.

The article claims that "unofficial" awards were fairly common in the early 20th century, yet lists just a handful, and as I have pointed out above, it is incorrect about the antarctic expedtion medals.--Nyctc7 (talk) 21:07, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Definition

"Unofficial decorations of the United States military are those awards and decorations that were authorized under military regulations, but never appeared on official precedence charts. Unofficial awards may also be bestowed for a one-time action or be authorized under the authority of a local commander."--Introduction to the article

This definition, which appears to have been made up by the creator of the article (no disrespect intended, one may create any article one choses as long as it doesn't conflict with wiki policy), is not really clear. Examples:

• The reference provided in the Butler Medal article states that the Medal was created by Butler, and that "The Department [of Defense] takes the position that large numbers of unofficial medals were privately issued to members of the Armed Forces of the United States between 1861 and 1865. The Butler Medal was but one of the many in this category." In other words, the medal wasn't "authorized under military regulations", and wasn't "authorized under the authority of a local commander", it was a medal privately issued by Butler: he had no authority to issue the medal. So by the definition in the introduction above, it should not be included, nor any other medals issued under these circumstances as well.

• One-time medals created by an Act of Congress, such as Congressional Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals meant to honor specific individuals or a specific group of individuals, such as The Antarctic Expedition Medals, the NC-4 medal, and the Cardenas Medal. In 1935 Congress passed legislation (P.L. 74-43, 49 Stat. 162) allowing the Secretary of the Navy to authorize--at his discretion--commemorative or special medals awarded to Navy and Marine Corps personnel to be made in military-sized fashion and worn on the uniform, and indeed they appeared in Navy precedence charts (don't know about the Cardenas medal, as the CFR I linked to in a previous comment above is from 1967, 67 years after that one-time medal was created).

• The Cold War Victory Medal. This is a privately made medal available for purchase by anyone. It has been adopted by two National Guard units and a couple of Veterans associations. So that makes it official for those organizations, but disavowed by the Dept. of Defense, See here. To call it an "Unoffical decoration of the U.S. Military" gives it an imprimatur that it does not deserve. --Nyctc7 (talk) 18:22, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

I have changed the definition to say awards and decorations that were not authorized under military regulations.--Nyctc7 (talk) 18:56, 22 September 2012 (UTC)